England international Jack Butland has revealed why he decided to snub Chelsea in favour of Stoke City.

At the age of just 19, Butland had been attracting the interest from a number of top clubs following his exploits for Birmingham City and giants Chelsea were said to be very keen on signing the goalkeeper back in 2013.

Surprisingly though, Butland decided to join Stoke instead and has now gone on to reveal why he took the decision to spurn the advances of a big side such as Chelsea.

"[Not going to Chelsea] wasn't the need to play straight away, it was like 'what's the next step for me, how can I build my career next?'" Butland said on Sky Sports' 'Goals On Sunday'.

"I just felt at the time that I didn't want to get bogged down at a big club. I'd always backed myself to try and do well but I didn't want to get bogged down and just be another number.

"I'm not saying I would have been [another number] at Chelsea but I felt the next step for me was at Stoke. I learned about the goalkeeping coach there and I felt it was somewhere I could really develop."